Dave Grohl: ‘I Wouldn’t Be Here If It Weren’t for Seattle’

The saying goes, "Home is where the heart is," and though he may not have been born there, Seattle always has a special place in the heart of Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl, who saw his star take off while playing drums for the Seattle-based Nirvana. Grohl recently filmed a video for Seattle tourism organization VisitSeattle that not only shares his love for the city, but offers insight into how he ended up there and his time with Nirvana.

The rock icon opens the video sharing how he first came to the city with his early band Scream and how his mother, who was preparing to retire, asked him to keep an eye out for places where she might want to relocate while he was on tour. "I went to Seattle for the first time, had never been and had an amazing experience and everything I always imagined to have in a city and I called my mother and said, 'I think I found the place for you,'" recalls the musician.

Seattle would come up again later in his life as Scream found themselves stranded on the road in Los Angeles, when Grohl reached out to The Melvins and learned that not only were Nirvana looking for a drummer, but that they'd seen him and had interest. Torn about what to do, his mother wired him some money for a flight to Seattle telling him to do what was best for him, which led to the introductions with Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic.

“I remember getting off the plane, and Krist and Kurt meeting me at baggage claim,” Grohl recalled. “It was like having the children of the corn pick you up from the airport.” He was then whisked off to a show where Nirvana were playing with a different drummer and he noticed that it wasn't the typical punk crowd. “[It was] trailer park kids with greasy long hair wearing clothes that they bought at the Salvation Army. There were flannels. I still dress like the kids I saw at the gig that night,” said Grohl, who adds, "It already felt like there was some sort of movement, but it was unintentional."

Returning his thoughts to Seattle, Grohl states, "I'm happy that I got to spend those few years in Seattle where the city just exploded. The experiences that I had at that age, which is a really impressionable age, shaped so much about the person that I am now." He later concluded, "I wouldn't be here if it weren't for Seattle as it was a perfect place for a person like me. I wish Seattle would just take me back." Watch the video in full above.